Conventionally, many of the devices for reading the content of each page of a book by scanning, such as CCD (Charge Coupled Device) are provided with a page turner such as disclosed in Japanese laid-open patent publication 166296/1980 (Tokukaisho 55-166296).
As shown in FIG. 20, a page turner 130 is provided with a book holder 131 for placing thereon a book B to be held open, and a suction nozzle 133 provided so as to be rotatable by a drive force transmitted from a gear 132. The page turner 130 is arranged as follows: The top page of the book B held open on the book holder 131 is air-sucked by a suction nozzle 133. In this state, by rotating the suction nozzle 133, the pages of the book B are successively turned one by one. In addition, a groove 131a provided at the center of the book holder 131 accommodates the spine of the book B in order to set the book B on the book holder 131.
However, in the arrangement of the above conventional page turner 130, since the book B is placed directly on the book holder 131, as the pages of the book B are turned, one side of the opened page gets lower, and the other side of the opened page-gets higher, and thus the position of the top page of the book B held open changes. Moreover, the book holder 131 is a fixed-type, and the book B is set on the book holder 131 only by fitting the spine of the book B into the groove 131a formed in the book holder 131. The buckling of the page of book B may occur depending on the quality of the paper used for the pages of book B. Therefore, when scanning the book B by the page turner 130 provided in the CCD, the scanning position must be adjusted according to the height position of the top page of the book B. Furthermore, in order to prevent the occurrence of the buckling of the page, a complex device or mechanism structure is required.
Not only the described suction-type page turner 130, but also that of a sliding-type is available. The sliding-type page turner is arranged as follows: The side of the page is buckled up, for example, by sliding a roller, and a pin is inserted into the buckled portion. Then, the book holder is moved, thereby turning the page.
However, the above sliding-type page turner also presents the following problem: In this type of page turner, the pages of the book are turned by moving the book holder only in one direction. Therefore, when turning a plurality of pages in one direction, every time a page is turned, the book holder must be moved back to the original position. This means that only a page is turned by a two-way movement of the book holder, thereby presenting the problem of low operating speed. Moreover, when turning the pages of the book using the described sliding-type page turner, page turning means are required separately for turning the pages on the left hand side of the book, and for turning the pages on the right hand side of the book. Because this makes the control system complicated, the compact-size page turner cannot be achieved.